Belt tensioners designed for synchronous drives cannot accommodate the movement necessary to properly remove slack from belt drives having long length belts.
Representative of the art is U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,552 to Serkh (1999) which discloses a tensioner with a base, a pivot-arm that oscillates about a pivot secured to the base, a pulley attached to the pivot-arm, a compression spring with a first end operatively connected to the pivot-arm and a second end operatively connected to a shoe that presses a convex surface of the shoe against a concave arcuate surface of the pivot-arm, to the shoe held in place against a protuberance secured to the base be a balance of forces.
Also representative of the art is U.S. Pat. No. 5,098,347 to Sajczvk (1992) which discloses a tensioner with a pulley rotatably mounted to a pivot arm that is biased with a spring. A wrenching means is described for applying a torque to the support structure.
What is needed is a tensioner having an adjustment feature for setting a base position with respect to an indicated predetermined belt spring force. The present invention meets this need.